Who wears the belts in the family? Melania signals her power.

First Lady Melania Trump and U.S. President Donald Trump arrive at the Israeli President's Residence in Jerusalem on May 22, 2017.

First Lady Melania Trump and U.S. President Donald Trump arrive at the Israeli President's Residence in Jerusalem on May 22, 2017.

(Gali Tibbon / AFP/Getty Images)

Caryn Ward

With the flick of a wrist, Melania Trump — the seldom seen and even more seldom heard first lady — made herself visible this week.

The news coming out of the Middle East about FLOTUS were the swats seen around the world. Caught on video, Melania seemed to reject on two separate occasions the extended hand of her husband, President Donald Trump, during their first foreign trip as first couple.

However, the first lady actually ended up signaling her power in a much more obvious and deliberate way. With her clothing. Specifically, her belts.

When she arrived in Saudi Arabia last week, she wore an oversized gold belt over a black Stella McCartney jumpsuit. The jumpsuit was respectful; Melania was almost covered from head to toe.

In fact, the jumpsuit could be seen as a Western riff on the traditional abaya — the long, black dress that Saudi women are required to wear. The abaya covers everything except a woman's hands and face. The jumpsuit might even be considered a show of solidarity with Saudi women, except for the giant, eye-catching gold belt that would have looked completely at home at a World Wrestling Entertainment event.

The belt signaled wealth, perhaps ostentatiously; or power in a menswear kind of way and rebellion, given the abaya reference.

Even when Melania switched to more traditional first lady attire, such as dresses and skirts, she was belted.

She wore a safari-shirt dress with a brown belt to an all-women GE facility in Riyadh where, without irony, she tweeted about "great strides being made towards the empowerment of women."

In Jerusalem, a sacred site for Jews, Christians and Muslims, she chose a virginal white skirt and jacket, and again there was the belt.

Wearing a belt to signal power is nothing new.

Photos through the years of Melania Trump, America's new first lady.

Comic book hero, TV show and now movie character Wonder Woman also wears an oversized gold belt. It's part of her famously formfitting, red, white and blue, superpowered suit. At the start of the 1975 TV series, all a villain had to do was take off Wonder Woman's belt and, poof, she would lose her powers.

Throughout history, belts have been a symbol of strength. According to onceuponabelt.com, Mongols exchanged belts to cement an alliance and the Franks believed they could take an enemy's power if they could take his belt.

And for women in the Middle Ages, before there was that other go-to accessory, the handbag, belts would hold their coins and their fans. Women took a break from belts in the 1920s as the flappers wore dropped-waist dresses and dropped the belt altogether.

But in the '30s women pulled on pants and belts were back. Since then, they have taken on different forms: thin belts in the '50s, low-slung belts in the '60s, chain belts in the '70s and the embellished belts of today. Belts have never left women's fashion scene.

The woman dubbed the "Queen of Belts" by popsugar.com lives not too far from where Melania made her gold-belted touch down on foreign soil as America's first lady. Queen Rania of Jordan is known for her stylish belts. It's possible Melania was taking a cue from the Saudis' neighbor.

This is not the first time the world has tried to read the tea leaves of Melania's clothing choices.

We cannot forget the infamous Gucci blouse with the pussy bow that she wore at the second presidential debate. That was in October 2016, just two days after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tapes of her husband bragging in 2005 to TV host Billy Bush that he could grab women by their genitalia and they wouldn't do anything about it because he's a celebrity.

It's unlikely that Melania's selection of that blouse was an accident. She's a former model who knows better than most of us that clothing sends a message and who probably knew when she chose it what that bow is called. The message of the bow still remains unexplained.

One could argue that a bow is just a bow and a belt is just a belt, but when we are awash in selfies and have curated social media sites of Kardashian proportions, chances are the first lady is telling us something about herself and her politics with her clothing.

And, to me, Melania's message is a cinch. It's that she has power and no one, least of all the president, should forget it. Or he just might get swatted again.